Spanish Musings

Where to start on my impressions of this time in Spain???

Hey there!

Firstly, the Spanish are an amazing people.  My Spanish has not improved dramatically but I believe that I can generally understand what they are saying.  Trace on the other hand is able to string sentances together and have a conversation with them. 
There is such respect in their way of life that the elderly can go for a walk at 12 midnight without being mugged.  In fact it was very common to see groups of Grandma´s and pa´s sitting on plaza benches having a good old gossip about everything between the hours of 10 - 12 pm.


You go to these Cafe/bars and you will see the men in there very early having a coffee or stronger drink, then later the ladies will come in for coffee and later in the day you will have kids come in for icecreams or sweets.  These cafes are like milk bars + coffee shop + tobaconis´t´s + alcohol bar all rolled up into one.  They serve the whole family.  That is what I liked the most.
We came across one Cafe bar that we really enjoyed spending time at.  It was in Mondanado and it was called the Bar El Peregrino. 
The owner was not able to speak Spanish but he was so accommodating.  In Spain they turn the TV on for guests of importance.  This guy (name escapes me) not only turned on the TV but spent 10 minutes flicking through the channels to find an English channel, finally settling on BBC News.
In Mondanado there is a camp where spanish children go to learn English, loads of activities for them.
It was in the bar that we finally met a person from the UK, Stuart (Leeds) and were able to have a full on normal conversation. phew!
Anyway from Ribadeo to Sorbrato we played tag with a quartet of Spanish uni students who knew a smattering of English.  They were a delight.



Secondly, bloody gum trees everywhere you look.
They use them for paper here so they grow plantations but they are concerned that they can not reuse the land for other crops as they say the gum trees are tainting the ground.
But these gum trees grow very straight and it was not for nearly 2 weeks before I saw a tree that had a normal Australian gum tree look, you know branches everywhere.

Thirdly, there are so many similar things about Spain and Australia, the are not quite the same but sometimes when you think you are in Australia.
But there is also those times when you know that you are not.  The towns / villages / hamlets etc are no more than 5 kms apart.  So sometimes you do not know if you have actually left one and gone to another.  And they have cows!  Whoooo the smell is with you most of the time.


 Lastly, I think that I could be quite happy to return to Spain and DRIVE around to visit those towns we fell in love with.
I also would not have given up the time that I have had with Trace for all the world.  We have been able to take our relationship to a new level of understanding that you can not do in your normal daily life.
I know that this woman is the desire of my heart.

Santiago ... at last the end of the pilgrimage

9 km

So instead of a lovely restful 3 days walking to Santiago, we arrived a day early.

What can we say, but it is great to be in this amazing heritage city where thousands of pilgrims have walked to. We arrived to celebrate St James Day, the biggest holy festival in Spain.

We´ll let the picture talk!


Rod´s boots


Tracey´s boot


Girls spanish dancing in the one plaza


Waiting for the fireworks

Sobrado - Labacolla: An unexpected long day ...

26 km

We planned to take 3 days to get to Santiago. But due to crowds, all the hotels/pensions were booked out. We met a lovely Danish couple on the day, had lunch together. When we got to a hotel on the route where we hoped to find somewhere to stay, our Danish friends had already arrived. The place was booked out. The owner's son organised for us to take our bags to Labacolla and booked a hotel for us. Another 9 kms to walk. It was great without our bags, but boy a long 9 kms.

Sobrado - Arzua

22 km

We had a long stretch on this day, which we started out late, so we hit the sun. Here we joined up with the French Camino. This meant crowds of people. We stayed in this town for two days.

Talking

- one of the important things about walking with your loved one, is that one ends up talking, being faced with miscommunication and differnent ways of doing things, so different expectations. This was one of these days. It is when we walk through conflict, that we can come out the other side, understanding and appreciating each other better. Oh, Carol (our communication coach) - how true are so many things that you taught us. It was an interesting day where Rod and I understood that we have differnent beats, but this does not mean we can't make a melody together, we just have to work on the tune. It's already sounding very good.

Sabrado

This town had the most lovely Monestery. We had a treat and stayed in the only hotel in town. We lazed in the afternoon swimming and lazing at the pool. That night, for dinner, we hijacked this little restaurant for tapa's. The owner was not expecting customers, but put on such a great meal for us. We sat together, solo, enjoying the night together.

Miraz: Meeting interesting people

An English group, CSJ, whom we bought our guide books through, thankfully opened an albergue in Miraz. As we walked into the town, there was a castle home. This castle has been in the same family for 500 years.

There was a French man Allain, helping the Englishman who was looking after the albergue, who was very interesting. He had a sad story of being a street kid until 11, where he then went to an orphanage. He didn't choose the life of street person, but choose to travel, with no money. His funnist story was an inspiration to go to Canada. So on the advice of someone, they said, the cheapest way to do it, is to go up Norway, which has ships going across to Greenland. From there work on a ship that goes across to Canada. So off Alain went to search for a ship. But as Alain said, 'I searched and searched, all the way up the coast of Norway, and there were no ******* ships'. We laughed, because Norways coast is long. He ended up living there for four years.Alain had a journal of all his paper clips where he had been in the news, for organising a group to celebrate 2000 twice, first in Manchuria, China, then to travel across the Bering Strait, Alaska to catch it there again. The journal detailed how he traveled through Pakistan, over the Himalayas, into Tibet, couldn't get into Russia so went to China.Listening to Allain is impressive, but underneath is a sadness. In his travels he got married, had a son in China. Today he is still travelling, divorced, his son doesn't have his father around. Basically I perceive, repeating his own sadness of his own youth, not having strong male influence around to guide and support him.


Chatting away on porch


Javier wicking his stick


Back on our trails, out of Miraz we walked over these unusual grey rock boulders.






We met our tweenie friends along the route. It was lovely walking with them. We met them at a café bar, where we played with the most beautiful natured puppy German Shepard. Along the route, the tweenies sang and chanted.




Clara had incredible pain in her knees that was slowing her down. As we were walking, her and I had time to just talk without the distraction of the boys. I discovered that she was a devout Catholic. When I questioned her why not catch a car to the next town, she explained the importance of her completing her pilgrimage, even if she had pain. If she could handle this pain, she could then in life face difficulties that were painful, and she could succeed. Explaining that life is not always easy. But if we can endure painful experience, we turn out to be conquerers and better people. So bravely, she kept on walking, knowing that this was a life lesson she was going to persist in.

I asked her about her boyfriend, whom she was walking with. He didn't believe in God, which she realised was important. She explained very simply that he was a sad person. If one has God, you are never alone, you are not sad, she said. She explained how her Granddad encouraged her in her faith as she grew up and her parents. We talked about how difficult it is when one tries to have a family where there are different beliefs. I explained how when Rod and I have kids, we will bring them up with the same faith, there is no struggle, there is agreement. She agreed and that this was her hearts desire. She is such a beautiful young woman. I loved listening to her instructing the guys to cook, how things had to be done a certain way. She was so lovely natured, yet had such a lovely strength in just being who she is. She'd sit painting her journal for hours. Then she'd have all the guys around her, painting too, except quiet Javier - he'd be wicking his stick or smoking quietly, thinking I presume.

We didn't chat again after that. I'm so pleased we had that moment.

Baamonde

Baamonde - a sleepy town. The walk out was just beautiful, walking through little villages and lovely horizon shots. We met a granddad and his granddaughter at their holiday home. He was just lovely, wanting to give us advice, talking through his graddaughter, giving her big words, where she would exclaim, "oh Pappie!". We had good laughs.

More pictures out of Baamonde

Tweenies walking infront of us


Incredible picture over horizon



Interesting monolith - we follow these signs or a plain paited yellow arrow to direct us to Santiago. Such a simple way to walk. One just follows the yellow arrows.